Faces of Boundary Bay: Jabez Richard

Jabez is born and raised in Washington. Growing up in Port Townsend, he had hopes of finding more opportunities off the Peninsula and he stumbled upon Bellingham. The beauty and greenery of Bellingham is what captivated him, but the unique people and art culture is what has been keeping him here for nearly 17 years and he now considers it his home.

Jabez has been with us at Boundary for four years. He is an Assistant Kitchen Manager as well as a line cook and has been cooking professionally in kitchens for over a decade. With an overall aura of calm, Jabez uses his patience to help mediate conflict between staff. Working in a kitchen can be difficult especially during a busy rush when it has a tendency to get stressful. It can be hard not to lose your temper at times, he said as we are all guilty of doing every now and then. But in the end it is about being a part of a team and success starts with communication and learning to get along with each other he said.

One aspect Jabez loves about working in the restaurant industry for so long is the people that you get to meet and work alongside. Some people at Boundary he has been working with for 12 years among different restaurants in town. At times, he will have a whole crew in the kitchen that he has worked with outside Boundary and it’s fun to see that they’re still cooking together but in a completely different setting.

Outside of Boundary Jabez makes things, goes to school and takes care of his kids. Ever since he was young, he found joy in reading, writing, cooking- anything that he could find and lend his creativity to. The idea of taking an idea and adding structure to it to make something real is what Jabez loves about art. “Taking ideas I would have conceptually for writing and seeing them manifest into reality is one of the more satisfying experiences as an artist,” he said.

Originally following the path to becoming a novelist, lately Jabez has found another passion in screen and playwriting. Jabez has hopes to one day move to a movie-making city like Los Angeles or Vancouver, B.C. to pursue his passion and give opportunities to his two daughters, Helen and Lucy. For now, Jabez is working on his degree at Western Washington University double majoring in Literature and Creative Writing, but he still finds time to bring his passions to life in Bellingham.

“I’m currently in the process of making movies,” he said, his most recent work being a film for Bleedingham, a local film-festival featuring short horror films. With everything going on, he tries to include his family in a lot of his projects to get quality time. “Both my daughters are in it, my niece is in it, my sister is in it, and my friends,” he said. “And it’s filmed at my moms house. It’s just like this really cool family horror film.”

An artist of all media, Jabez also runs a radio show on KZAX 94.9 with some of his friends and coworkers. He enjoys sharing new music and says that his radio show is a good platform for getting his friends on the radio and finding other local artists to share and get discovered. “The music today that’s coming out of Bellingham is exceptional and original and people should hear it,” he said. “We’re in Bellingham, it’s an arts community and we make every kind of art.”

He says that even if it’s his line of work, he loves cooking and still does it at home. He dreams of a yard where he can have goats for cheesemaking to sell to local restaurants and work on projects like making his own salsa and sauerkraut to sell to the community.

We are beyond stoked to have this creative artist on our team and thankful for his calming nature in the kitchen. He can usually be found reading, writing or baking up his favorite batch of cookies he calls Scotchies, which could possibly make their way to the Boundary dessert menu. His favorite thing to eat at Boundary is the salmon and although he doesn’t drink the beer anymore he highly recommends the Oatmeal Stout.

Keep your eyes peeled for special items running on the menu or future plays and films by Jabez Richard. If it’s got his name on it, it’s probably something you don’t want to miss!